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Darts champion hits target

Bull’s eye: Collie Eagles darts player Lee Chapman has qualified for this year’s Australian Darts Championships.

COLLIE EAGLES darts playerLee Chapman has been selected for the Western Australian state team to compete inthe Australian Darts Championships 2016.

Mr Chapman placed within the top 16 averages in the state championships, earning him the chance tocompete in the state side trials last month.

He played seven gamesin the state trials doubles tournament on Saturday, May 28 and 15 games inthesingles eventon May 29.

Mr Chapman was selected for the side, featuring eight players and a reserve,byplacing the seventh highest average in the trials.

Mr Chapman said he was overwhelmed byhis selection for theside and the chance to representWA.

“I’m just over the moon, to get Western Australia on my back and to represent my state,” he said.

“I’ve given it all I’ve got this year and my darts are really starting to pay off for me.

“I’ve been putting in a few extra hours on the board and it’s just working for me, I seem to have found a nice rhythm and flow with the board and it’s going well.

“I’m just stoked to get a chance to represent the state, it means everything.”

Mr Chapman said darts has turned from a hobby into a passion over the past few years.

“It was about ten years ago I started playing, a lot of my friends played and they were always playing on Wednesday nights,” he said.

“I’ve played since I was a young fella,I’ve always had a dart board up at home, but I had never played competitively before andI found out that I wasn’t too bad at it so I took it up.

“It started off In B-grade in Collie playing for the Premier Hotel and I spent a couple of years at that and then I switched over to the Workers Club for a couple of years in A-grade.

“We formed a team that wanted to travel up to Mandurah because we wanted to expose ourselves as better competition.”

Mr Chapman has playedin the Mandurah, Port Kennedy, and Rockingham leagues in six of the past seven years.

He and darts partner Peter Rowe were required tocompete in the leagues to be recognised forthe state championships.

Mr Chapman had averaged 93 over a four week period in the Rockingham league this season.

The nationalchampionships willtake place from July 28 to August 6 in Bendigo, Victoria.

Mr Chapman said Collie has developed a proud darts culture that accepts people of all skill sets.

“You just need to go down to one of your local clubs on Wednesday nightif you’re a manorif you’re a lady go down to one of your local clubs Tuesday night, there’s about seven or eight clubs in Collie for both,” he said.

“There is always spots,Collie’s got a really healthy darts league –there is aboutfive A-grade sides, about eightB-grade sides and about 10 C-grade sides.

“There’s like 220 people that have played for the Collie Darts Association this year, that’s just men –Collie has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, darts associations in WA.

“Our club, the Collie Eagles, we’re actually short of players so if anyone wants to come down and have a go they’re guaranteed to get a game.”

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.